A Break in the Heat/Another Thriller

I slept well last night and woke up refreshed this morning.  It was such a marvelous feeling that I almost felt like I was dancing on air.   Well, not really possible as the humidity is still somewhere in the 90 percent range but at least it is cool this morning and will be slightly cooler, if more humid today.  I feel a tingle still in my sinuses and a very tiny bit of a headache, but considering that I have had a sinus headache since Tuesday last, with attendant fitful sleep and discomfort, any improvement is a bit of encouragement.  I had thought that I had outgrown this tendency toward summer sinusitis but instead I was lulled into complacency following last summer's unusually cool weather.

As a result of my own fitful mood, nothing much has happened of note.  Family was here and we had a marvelous visit.  Grandson O left at Christmas still a warm snuggly bundle of toddlerhood and arrived a week ago, two months shy of his 4th birthday, very much the little boy.  When he greeted me at the airport it was very much a sauntering "hi grandma" with the cool sideward flick of the wrist which passes as a wave. In that moment he reminded me of nothing so much as his teenaged uncle many long years ago.  But of course we got to snuggles and giggles and shrieks in the pool with splashing and laughing and many hugs.  The progression through childhood is not quite a smooth continuum after all.  

 I pretty much let the house go for the duration of the visit, much preferring games of chutes and ladders or merely watching PBS kids with O, and sometimes relaxing with a book.  It was about all my pounding head was suited for, and there is always a winnowing of options in life.  I think I made the right choices here.    Rather than being productive in my down time I read The Paris Option by Robert Ludlum and Gayle Lynds. 

I don't really know why I picked it up.  I bought it when step-son A was here in May.  We went to the bookstore and I, as always when I am in a bookstore, had to buy a book.  Perhaps it was the Ludlum name as I always enjoyed Ludlum's novels.  I was aware that it was not written, or written completely by Ludlum.  I wasn't really aware at the time that Ludlum had passed away and this doesn't bother me, this marketing of Ludlum's name to sell more books although I wonder about the benefit of this.  It probably does sell more books, but I suspect that many readers are overly critical because it does not live up to the expections of the Ludlum name.

That said, I found it an enjoyable thriller.  I have not read any of the other books in the Covert One series.  The book is well written, the story moves right along, fast enough with enough human interest as well to keep one reading.  It is by no means boring and it has a few clever moments where I was laughing out loud.  I'm not going to comment on whether anything is realistic or reasonable or "true"; that is not quite what thrillers are about, but it was good entertainment.  And in the end, it actually made me think about a few things, make connections to my own life and the world I see and live in; not profound associations perhaps, but it did make me think about things we take for granted:  our overconfidence about our own competence, safety, the concept of heartland, idealism, and the darker sides of human nature.  What more could I ask from a casual book: escape, relaxation, reflection.  For me, considering that I read very fast, this is a far better use of time and money than most expeditions to the movie theater.

Comments

[La Belette Rouge]

You know I have NEVER read a thriller. I read Helter Skelter but that was non-fiction. Nope, I never have. Wow! I just learned something about myself.

[materfamilias]

Your last comment about the value of a book vs. cost of investment for fast readers echoes what I often feel when people who don't read quickly comment on my choices or even the quantity of my reading, as if I cloistered myself from the world to read. For me, it's not such a big deal, and yes, it's worth comparing to some of the other things people do with that same time, which is hardly saving the world's children or creating great art or whatever. Oops, do I sound defensive? ;-)